Each Little World

Home again, home again

Lots to share after a week away from Madison. We arrived home last night with just enough energy left to walk through the garden; not enough to put together a bouquet for this morning. Instead here are two of my favorite arrangements put together by the gardener who scattered beautiful bouquets throughout all the public spaces at Stout's Island Lodge where we stayed last week. 

This is the view outside the main door at one side of the lodge (above). The little vase of white Hydrangeas and roses was one of a pair that sat on a table in the Great Room the day before. This gorgeous bike basket filled with a fern was outside the pair of double wooden screen doors at the other side of the main building.

And these incredible gargoyle wooden gutters greeted you as you entered the entrances at the main building. These views give you a little teaser of the gorgeous historic Wisconsin location where we spent the last few days.

To see what other gardeners put into a vase this Monday, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. She's the host of this meme that so many of us consider the perfect way to start our week.

. . .

Thanks to everyone who commented on last week's blog while I was away. Whenever I was near wifi I checked the blog and posted your comments, but usually did not manage any replies. Back to regular programming this week!

A moment to enjoy

Though I've probably spent too much time this summer complaining about our above-average rainfall, I well remember droughty years and know my garden is better with water that's not coming from a hose. Individual plants and the garden as a whole can only be described as lush.

I've been going out every few days to try to capture the same area from different viewpoints and at slightly different stages. Without this visual reminder I know that I will be hard-pressed come winter to remember what it all looked like — and if there really were any bare spots that needed even a tiny little plant that I should order in January!

The scenes above and below are at the back edge of the header pool that flows down the waterfall into the stream. The above view is to the left of a narrow Weeping Serbian Spruce (Picea omorika 'Pendula') while the view below is on the right side of the Spruce.

Come around the upper pool and this is what you see. Notice that open spot in the Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola'? A bunny has picked it as his favorite placefor a nap!

Continue to the left of the above scene and you can see it again behind the Ligularia stenocephala 'Rocket.'

The following images are in the big bed opposite the area above. This is the second summer for Astilbe taquetii 'Superba' and I am in love with it. It will make quite a show when all the orange lilies in this bed bloom. That's Sambucus nigra 'Black Lace' to the left and Kirengeshoma palmata/koreana group to the right of the Astilbe.

Agastache 'Blue Fortune'

Thalictrum 'Ankum' is only in its second year and is huge, though it's currently flopping from the various rainstorms.

If you only grow one Hosta

... it should be 'Whirlwind.' According to my garden records, I am growing 44 different Hostas, ranging from minis like 'Blue Mouse Ears' to maxis like 'Sum and Substance'. I have a few favorites that I often recommend — 'Abiqua Drinking Gourd', 'Inniswood' and 'Sagae' — when asked. But 'Whirlwind' is in a class by itself. 

• The patterning on the leaves is eye-catching over the growing season.
• Since the leaves grow vertically they offer a different foliage contrast in the garden than the more common horizontal Hosta leaves.
• I think that verticality also protects the leave as these were less seriously damaged by our recent hail storm.
• Though the leaf center is a pale cream, mine don't burn even though they get a lot of sun.
• The flowers are impressive because the stems are so thick and study that there's none of that sloppy droopinng look.
• The flowers themselves are study and nicely patterned.

I've praised this Hosta in the past and I am sure I'll do it again.

 

Sick of flowers?

 "Flower Girl" by Cynthia Consentino, 2004. Coil and slab-built earthenware, oil paint and cold wax. Chazen Museum of Art, Madison.

Wisconsin summer

Mark belongs to a book group that meets the last Sunday morning of the month. I join in when the book interests me and I'm willing to give up time in the garden. I went along this week as the garden is too wet to work in. The drive was absolutely lovely and reminded me again of what I love about where I live.

Drive ten minutes outside of Madison and you're in the country. We saw fields and terraced hills of corn as far as the eye could see. 

This natural area, however, was almost as far as our friend's house about an hour from town.

The roads were lined with Queen Anne's lace and Chicory, a site that says summer in Wisconsin to me.

We also saw some low lying fields that were water-logged and the crops planted there had rotted away. A very sobering site. I may complain about my wet garden but it's not my livelihood like these crops are for farmers.

We could also see where the high winds had come through in the recent storms. Lots of huge branches and big old trees were down by the roadsides. There were a couple of downed trees where I hoped the vibrations from our truck driving by would not cause them to fall onto us.

It made driving on twisty and hilly roads with tree canopies meeting overhead a little disconcerting this time instead of its usual charming.

But our journey proved safe and uneventful. We arrived home to discover a little rainstorm had visited while we were gone. And we ended the day with a turkey play date in the garden. We've discovered the turkeys are nesting in the black walnut tree in the neighbor's yard. 

A pair of moms (yes, two of them!) came for an evening stroll in the garden with a hoard of little ones. I guess that's what happens when you spend twenty years creating a beautiful habitat around your house — there are always visitors stopping by.

 

In a vase on Monday: Prunings

I'm not a big fan of most Hosta flowers but after trimming a big clump of the plants, I couldn't bring myself to just toss perfectly good flowers. I plopped them in a big vase and kept adding things as I went around the garden pruning. 

There are stems of bamboo that were blocking the stone steps up to the Tea House and Spirea blocking a view. At the last minute I added a big stem of water baby's breath that had fallen intp the pond. 

Not much thought went into this display but the scale of the plants and vase give it a certain drama. Plus it was a nice addition to the deck on the night of the tour of our garden last Monday. Thus a Monday vase, just a week late. To see what other gardeners have put into a vase today, visit our host Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

Enough already!

Ok, enough is enough. Tornado sirens kept me in our basement Wednesday evening while Mark was in the basement at the PhotoMidwest meeting he was at. Given that my bother-in-law's house was at the epicenter of the Stoughton tornado and my sister's home got hit by Hurricane Irene, we take these storm warnings seriously.

We got 2.87" of rain overnight on Wednesday bringing the July total so far to a fraction under 9". More rain is forecast for today and tomorrow. 

The moss and lichens are loving this weather but all my lovely tall lilies and Thalictrums took a dive from the storm.

I went out into the middle of this jumble later in the day on Thursday to retie the lilies to see if I could get them back to a vertical position. 

Re-tied everything but I think it's only a temporary measure. Clearly I will need to get much taller stakes to keep them vertical as the flowers open, especially since it looks like we're not out of this weather pattern yet.  But I did get some souvenirs to show for my efforts.

Life in the street

Jason, who blogs at Garden in a City, recently wrote about the fabulous Lurie Garden in downtown Chicago. One of the plants he focused on was ‘Summer Beauty’ Allium (A. lusitanicum). The carefree charm of this summer-flowering bulb has made it a stalwart star of Midwestern gardens. In Madison it's grown at Olbrich Botanical Garden as well as in city planters on Library Mall. Most of the gardeners I know grow it as well. I have it in my traffic island garden.

Neither winter sand and road salt nor car exhaust seem to bother it. And it doesn't mind a little shade either.

Geranium 'Rozanne' is in the center of the bed.

I put a plant of Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta in each of the four quadrants of this space with a triangle of 'Summer Beauty' Alliums in between them. At the moment the Alliums dominate but in another week or two the Calamintha will start blooming until frost. Both plants are bee magnets.

I had planned to put the low growing Allium senescens 'Glaucum' in the four corners but decided that was going to be too subtle. So I am looking to see if I can still find some golden Oregano to bright up the mix. I think it needs a little more pizzazz given how bright this same space is in May (below) with Tulips and giant Muscari.

Mostly wordless Wednesday

I've shown variations on this scene many times but we can't resist taking a photo when the sun shines on the Buddha. This is what we see when we look out the window on the way from the bedroom to the kitchen to make coffee every morning. The perfect start to the day.

New growth

Spring and early summer bring lots of new growth to everything in the garden including trees and shrubs. But this summer's rain has made some things grow and grow. The other day I came around the corner onto this path and discovered the feathery foliage of one of our Dawn Redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) had suddenly shot out and was blocking my passage.

Not only that, but the Pagoda Dogwood across the path had done the same thing. Where the Metasequoia wan't touching the ground it was touching the Dogwood — right at eye level!

Saws were required to solve the situation, though more work may be needed if we don't stop getting all this rain.